-
THE WORLDS BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. ISOLATED.
Issue 32 2014rev 2.1
Q+A WITH WITH CHRISTOPHER PEPI BESSE OF FRANCE
Interview
EVGA GTX 980 CLASSIFIED
Reviewed
Feature
SENDING OUT INVITES FAR AND WIDE!
OVERCLOCKINGISOLATION
ALIEN: ISOLATION
Reviewed
A LOOK BACK AT MSIS MASTER OVERCLOCKING ARENA 2014
Feature
GIGABYTE X99 UD7 WIFI
Reviewed
MSI X99S X-POWER AC
Reviewed
CORSAIR DOMINATOR
PLATINUM 3,200MHZ DDR4 16GB KIT
Reviewed
-
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 3
A GOOD YEARWelcome to the final issue of 2014. Its taken much
longer to get to you but its finally here in its full glory. 2014
has been if anything an eventful year and unlike past editors notes
Ive written during this period. Theres literally a lot to talk
about here. Weve seen some great changes in the overclocking
landscape and we can only imagine what 2015 will bring for us. Over
and above that we have seen a healthy uptake in PC gaming, be it
notebooks, small gaming PCs or whatever else. Theres plenty more to
be excited about this year than in 2013.
I wait patiently for INTELs drive in conjunction with SAMSUNG,
for 4K/UHD monitors to retail for the magical $399 mark as this is
truly the evolution weve needed. This is not only in a gaming
context where the benefits of 4K are obvious, but for overclocking
as well. Im relieved to see that we now have FireStrike Ultra,
which is inevitably going to be the standard for all our testing
here going forward. If anything it will allow us to drop another
benchmark, in the form of Catzilla (at least the 720P test) as it
serves little to no purpose at all in evaluating the performance of
anything remotely resembling a shipping title. Bluntly put, the
cats and all were cute in the beginning, but they've become bland
in addition to looking decisively dated. This would obviously be
true for the 1440P test as well, but it does place more strain on
the GPU, so theres that. However whats clear is that the time for
new benchmarks that are still firmly within the confines of
competitive overclocking, but have some real world relevance has
come.
On to other things overclocking, Ive been quite vocal about this
on our facebook page and even on our twitter account. I do believe
that the silent and unsaid, status quo for quality motherboards is
something that needs to be discussed more openly by those with the
capacity to do so. That doesnt always fall to media and if
anything, that group is the least reliable when it comes to
tackling such issues. Its a matter of transparency and
accountability to you the readers. Be it you read one of the few
print publications that remain, an e-magazine such as this one or a
website. Almost all publication relies on some kind of funding.
Since funding is provided primarily by the vendors which provide
the very same products we must judge objectively. Try as we may as
an industry it is inevitably going to a spiral down into bought
editorial. Even if no single entity sets out to do so, it
needs only a single person to engage in the grey areas of
editorial and ad spend and the rest have to follow.
Mind you Im not saying this is a helpless situation. On the
contrary, it is you the readers which can bring about, if you so
desire, a change for the better as to what level of honesty is
expected in reviews. That simply means, actually reading the pieces
all the way through and not just engaging the products
superficially. Moreover, this will bring much needed value and
meaning back into an award system which at present unfortunately
doesnt mean much. We give out ours as fitting, especially since we
dont have numerical scoring system within the main reviews section,
but that only solves a small part of the problem. In an issue where
we literally have only the best hardware to cover, that means
virtually all products could see an editors choice award. Im sure
you can see the problem here. All it needs is that you as readers
and consumers should question reviews that slander a product but
then end up giving a positive award. For example if we wrote that a
specific keyboard was nothing but an exercise in sheer frustration.
That it had no redeeming qualities outside of its primary ability
of allowing you some form of basic interaction with your computer.
That is a pretty damning statement and position to take. It is then
inappropriate for us for example to then award such a product a
Value, Hardware, Top pick or whatever other award. Rewarding what
we found to be anything but a pleasant experience is dishonest
above anything else. The sad part however is that, even this doesnt
happen because more times than not plenty of publications write
glowing reviews of products that are known to be inferior even by
the very manufacturers. That type of writing has eroded away at
what is otherwise a fairly straight forward process of evaluating
products and services as they are likely to be experienced by the
end user, you!
We as a publication have been subject to many of these
pressures, but given that we are bi-monthly and in the context of
others, with an odd 50,000 or so readers. Our pressures are
incomparable to a site that has millions or hundreds of thousands
of visitors daily. Even with that said, be it a publication has 5
readers or 5 million, they should be held to a much higher standard
of honesty and objective writing than they are at present. Failure
to do this not only slows progress within the industry to a crawl,
but we sometimes have none at all. Just like Only you can stop
forest fires, only you can change it all for the better. And with
that joke that didnt go over, I wish you all a happy December and
we will see you in January 2015.
[ Neo Sibeko - Editor ]
-
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 3
A GOOD YEARWelcome to the final issue of 2014. Its taken much
longer to get to you but its finally here in its full glory. 2014
has been if anything an eventful year and unlike past editors notes
Ive written during this period. Theres literally a lot to talk
about here. Weve seen some great changes in the overclocking
landscape and we can only imagine what 2015 will bring for us. Over
and above that we have seen a healthy uptake in PC gaming, be it
notebooks, small gaming PCs or whatever else. Theres plenty more to
be excited about this year than in 2013.
I wait patiently for INTELs drive in conjunction with SAMSUNG,
for 4K/UHD monitors to retail for the magical $399 mark as this is
truly the evolution weve needed. This is not only in a gaming
context where the benefits of 4K are obvious, but for overclocking
as well. Im relieved to see that we now have FireStrike Ultra,
which is inevitably going to be the standard for all our testing
here going forward. If anything it will allow us to drop another
benchmark, in the form of Catzilla (at least the 720P test) as it
serves little to no purpose at all in evaluating the performance of
anything remotely resembling a shipping title. Bluntly put, the
cats and all were cute in the beginning, but they've become bland
in addition to looking decisively dated. This would obviously be
true for the 1440P test as well, but it does place more strain on
the GPU, so theres that. However whats clear is that the time for
new benchmarks that are still firmly within the confines of
competitive overclocking, but have some real world relevance has
come.
On to other things overclocking, Ive been quite vocal about this
on our facebook page and even on our twitter account. I do believe
that the silent and unsaid, status quo for quality motherboards is
something that needs to be discussed more openly by those with the
capacity to do so. That doesnt always fall to media and if
anything, that group is the least reliable when it comes to
tackling such issues. Its a matter of transparency and
accountability to you the readers. Be it you read one of the few
print publications that remain, an e-magazine such as this one or a
website. Almost all publication relies on some kind of funding.
Since funding is provided primarily by the vendors which provide
the very same products we must judge objectively. Try as we may as
an industry it is inevitably going to a spiral down into bought
editorial. Even if no single entity sets out to do so, it
needs only a single person to engage in the grey areas of
editorial and ad spend and the rest have to follow.
Mind you Im not saying this is a helpless situation. On the
contrary, it is you the readers which can bring about, if you so
desire, a change for the better as to what level of honesty is
expected in reviews. That simply means, actually reading the pieces
all the way through and not just engaging the products
superficially. Moreover, this will bring much needed value and
meaning back into an award system which at present unfortunately
doesnt mean much. We give out ours as fitting, especially since we
dont have numerical scoring system within the main reviews section,
but that only solves a small part of the problem. In an issue where
we literally have only the best hardware to cover, that means
virtually all products could see an editors choice award. Im sure
you can see the problem here. All it needs is that you as readers
and consumers should question reviews that slander a product but
then end up giving a positive award. For example if we wrote that a
specific keyboard was nothing but an exercise in sheer frustration.
That it had no redeeming qualities outside of its primary ability
of allowing you some form of basic interaction with your computer.
That is a pretty damning statement and position to take. It is then
inappropriate for us for example to then award such a product a
Value, Hardware, Top pick or whatever other award. Rewarding what
we found to be anything but a pleasant experience is dishonest
above anything else. The sad part however is that, even this doesnt
happen because more times than not plenty of publications write
glowing reviews of products that are known to be inferior even by
the very manufacturers. That type of writing has eroded away at
what is otherwise a fairly straight forward process of evaluating
products and services as they are likely to be experienced by the
end user, you!
We as a publication have been subject to many of these
pressures, but given that we are bi-monthly and in the context of
others, with an odd 50,000 or so readers. Our pressures are
incomparable to a site that has millions or hundreds of thousands
of visitors daily. Even with that said, be it a publication has 5
readers or 5 million, they should be held to a much higher standard
of honesty and objective writing than they are at present. Failure
to do this not only slows progress within the industry to a crawl,
but we sometimes have none at all. Just like Only you can stop
forest fires, only you can change it all for the better. And with
that joke that didnt go over, I wish you all a happy December and
we will see you in January 2015.
[ Neo Sibeko - Editor ]
-
4 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
The Overclocker is published by OCL-Media (cc).
EditorNeo Sibeko
Art DirectorChris Savides
Contributors Dane RemendesPieter-Jan Massman PlaisierTimothe
PineauJayda Wu
For editorial and marketing please
contact:[email protected]
REGULARS3 - Editors note
6 - Interview with Christopher Pepi Besse
FEATURES12 A look back at MSIs Master
Overclocking Arena 2014
18 Overclocking Isolation
REVIEWS24 MSI X99S X-POWER AC
28 GIGABYTE X99 UD7 WIFI
32 EVGA GTX 980 CLASSIFIED
36 CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM 3200 C16
DDR4 Kit
LIFESTYLE42 - Alien: Isolation
46 ASUS Gladius
48 MSI GS60 GHOST PRO 3K 2QE
50 EKWB EK-KIT X360
46
32
-
4 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
The Overclocker is published by OCL-Media (cc).
EditorNeo Sibeko
Art DirectorChris Savides
Contributors Dane RemendesPieter-Jan Massman PlaisierTimothe
PineauJayda Wu
For editorial and marketing please
contact:[email protected]
REGULARS3 - Editors note
6 - Interview with Christopher Pepi Besse
FEATURES12 A look back at MSIs Master
Overclocking Arena 2014
18 Overclocking Isolation
REVIEWS24 MSI X99S X-POWER AC
28 GIGABYTE X99 UD7 WIFI
32 EVGA GTX 980 CLASSIFIED
36 CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM 3200 C16
DDR4 Kit
LIFESTYLE42 - Alien: Isolation
46 ASUS Gladius
48 MSI GS60 GHOST PRO 3K 2QE
50 EKWB EK-KIT X360
46
32
-
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 7
-
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 7
-
8 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
the competition and hardware? I think there are still a few
small things that need improvement, but overall it was much better
than previous years in my opinion.
What is your favourite MOA to date since 2008? It was definitely
2013. It was my first trip to Taiwan ever, only those who travelled
there can understand...
Do you still compete in the rankings personally or is that not
important for your anymore. Do you even find time to be
overclocking as much as before?Not for a very long time. Now I only
participate in HWBOT Pro OC Cup with my team mate Pt1t under a
joint user profile named The Overclocking Knights. Together with
Benchbros, Der8auer & Dancop we formed Team Pro OC EU which is
currently ranked 1st.
What is your favourite graphics card or platform to overclock?
Whatever I can get my hands on as long as it provides fun
without
complications. I hate wasting time.
To those that know even a little about you, its very obvious
that youre a fan of motorsport. Which discipline do you like
specifically, touring, open-wheel racing etc.? Im a real fan of
Time Attack! Unfortunately the nearest championship is in the UK so
I stick to amateur track sessions. Besides this, I watch a lot of
Rally (Sebastien Loeb FTW !) and a bit of Formula 1.
Your car is pretty tricked out. What are you working on adding
to it and what mods does it have at present, visual and
performance? Ha ha thanks. Engine received every bolt on mod I
could buy to get more power besides a new turbo. Its currently
sitting at 434hp (crank) but like every overclocker I always want
to push more so next step is to save for a bulletproof engine and a
big turbo kit to reach ~750hp.
Youre one of the more vocal and
high profile overclockers within the community and perhaps even
outside of that. What are your general thoughts on the state of
overclocking? Is there perhaps, anything youd like to see changed
in the overclocking community? Id like to see more & more
people involved in extreme overclocking so this hobby can become
more popular and maybe evolve into an E-sport. Id also like to see
overclockers relax and have even more fun than they already are!
There are still some nice competitions but its not as friendly as
anymore. I think that like always, once companies, money and
support (hardware in this case) got involved, it changed a lot of
things. Now I see a lot of overclockers whine like divas about
everything and it is seriously not helping. I mean criticism is
always fine when it is constructive, but there are relevant topics,
right time and the right way to do it. However to finish on a good
note, I think that lately, HWBots efforts could be a very good way
to get new blood
-
8 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
the competition and hardware? I think there are still a few
small things that need improvement, but overall it was much better
than previous years in my opinion.
What is your favourite MOA to date since 2008? It was definitely
2013. It was my first trip to Taiwan ever, only those who travelled
there can understand...
Do you still compete in the rankings personally or is that not
important for your anymore. Do you even find time to be
overclocking as much as before?Not for a very long time. Now I only
participate in HWBOT Pro OC Cup with my team mate Pt1t under a
joint user profile named The Overclocking Knights. Together with
Benchbros, Der8auer & Dancop we formed Team Pro OC EU which is
currently ranked 1st.
What is your favourite graphics card or platform to overclock?
Whatever I can get my hands on as long as it provides fun
without
complications. I hate wasting time.
To those that know even a little about you, its very obvious
that youre a fan of motorsport. Which discipline do you like
specifically, touring, open-wheel racing etc.? Im a real fan of
Time Attack! Unfortunately the nearest championship is in the UK so
I stick to amateur track sessions. Besides this, I watch a lot of
Rally (Sebastien Loeb FTW !) and a bit of Formula 1.
Your car is pretty tricked out. What are you working on adding
to it and what mods does it have at present, visual and
performance? Ha ha thanks. Engine received every bolt on mod I
could buy to get more power besides a new turbo. Its currently
sitting at 434hp (crank) but like every overclocker I always want
to push more so next step is to save for a bulletproof engine and a
big turbo kit to reach ~750hp.
Youre one of the more vocal and
high profile overclockers within the community and perhaps even
outside of that. What are your general thoughts on the state of
overclocking? Is there perhaps, anything youd like to see changed
in the overclocking community? Id like to see more & more
people involved in extreme overclocking so this hobby can become
more popular and maybe evolve into an E-sport. Id also like to see
overclockers relax and have even more fun than they already are!
There are still some nice competitions but its not as friendly as
anymore. I think that like always, once companies, money and
support (hardware in this case) got involved, it changed a lot of
things. Now I see a lot of overclockers whine like divas about
everything and it is seriously not helping. I mean criticism is
always fine when it is constructive, but there are relevant topics,
right time and the right way to do it. However to finish on a good
note, I think that lately, HWBots efforts could be a very good way
to get new blood
-
10 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
involved in overclocking and change things.
Out in France who do you overclock with predominantly or is it a
solo effort most time? Mostly a solo effort but I still prefer to
join pt1t in his place in Belgium or he travels to MSI France for
overclocking sessions.
How often do you have overclocking sessions?It depends on what
you consider an OC session. Before and after launch of Z87 and Z97,
I used to spend all my weekends and late nights in the office
testing BIOS revisions and reporting feedback to engineers. If we
talk about real benching, I would say only once or twice a
quarter.
Any interesting hardware youre looking forward to in 2015? I
would like to see a strong response from AMD to NVIDIA and of
course Im looking forward to Intel's Skylake.
What is your single greatest or most memorable overclocking
achievement?No joke, my best memories are you writing about me in
The Overclocker when I took the 3DM05 & 06 WR with a triple SLI
GTX 260 and a golden i7 940 ES B0 unlocked (940XE). At that time,
it felt very good to be able to achieve higher scores than masters
Andre and Kingpin using lower-end hardware.
When last did you play any game and what was it and on what
platform? Actually, I started to play a lot more since I began at
MSI and discovered Steam.I now own an MSI Nightblade with a
GTX780Ti GAMING and play like twice a week, for example Grid 2,
Injustice: Gods Among Us, Naruto, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2,
Batman Arkham Origins just to name a few.
Anything else youd like to say to everyone reading this?Thank
you for this interview, thanks to everyone who supports me and my
team, and hello to all my Overclocker friends all over the
world!
-
10 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
involved in overclocking and change things.
Out in France who do you overclock with predominantly or is it a
solo effort most time? Mostly a solo effort but I still prefer to
join pt1t in his place in Belgium or he travels to MSI France for
overclocking sessions.
How often do you have overclocking sessions?It depends on what
you consider an OC session. Before and after launch of Z87 and Z97,
I used to spend all my weekends and late nights in the office
testing BIOS revisions and reporting feedback to engineers. If we
talk about real benching, I would say only once or twice a
quarter.
Any interesting hardware youre looking forward to in 2015? I
would like to see a strong response from AMD to NVIDIA and of
course Im looking forward to Intel's Skylake.
What is your single greatest or most memorable overclocking
achievement?No joke, my best memories are you writing about me in
The Overclocker when I took the 3DM05 & 06 WR with a triple SLI
GTX 260 and a golden i7 940 ES B0 unlocked (940XE). At that time,
it felt very good to be able to achieve higher scores than masters
Andre and Kingpin using lower-end hardware.
When last did you play any game and what was it and on what
platform? Actually, I started to play a lot more since I began at
MSI and discovered Steam.I now own an MSI Nightblade with a
GTX780Ti GAMING and play like twice a week, for example Grid 2,
Injustice: Gods Among Us, Naruto, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2,
Batman Arkham Origins just to name a few.
Anything else youd like to say to everyone reading this?Thank
you for this interview, thanks to everyone who supports me and my
team, and hello to all my Overclocker friends all over the
world!
-
12 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
On the weekend of October the 17th MSI held the annual MOA
(Master Overclocker Arena) competition. As in all the previous
competitions, MOA featured over a dozen overclockers from around
the world. These competitors had qualified over the course of
several months in their respective regions. Unlike in previous
competitions though, Instead of having a single class or
overclockers all using the same hardware, MSI broke it down to two
classes. Obviously entrants could only enter in a single class, but
it did allow for those with lesser hardware in class B for instance
to show their skill even with limited hardware. In this class there
were no regional restrictions and all entrants competed around the
world simultaneously leading up to the competition.
For the first time ever, MOA was streamed live on Twitch, hosted
by none other than OC-TV, which has always been the go to, live
overclocking broadcasting agency. As
expected, the rules were set by MSI and HWBOT to ensure
consistency with international overclocking standards. To that end,
HWBOTs resident celebrity (massman)was present, but not in the
capacity of a judge, instead as one of the commentators of the live
broadcast. The two judges were top overclockers Ian (8-pack) from
the U.K and Roman (der8auer) from Germany. Two faces and names all
competitors were very familiar with.
Last year MSI had decided to make this a closed event and this
year was the same with no spectators. Only the independent
journalists, partners, competitors and of course MSI and its hosts
were present at the venue. This obviously allows the overclockers
to focus exclusively on the task at hand. However, it is a pity
that it has made the event and exercise very niche. We do hope next
year, should MSI hosts the competition, that it will perhaps be at
a venue where gamers are present as well. After all, the
A LOOK BACK AT MSIS MASTER OVERCLOCKING
ARENA 2014
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 13
similarities between competitive gaming and overclocking are
more than skin deep and in structure these two activities are by
and large very similar.
Where hardware is concerned, MSI had a very strong showing this
year with not a single piece of hardware failing due to
overclocking. As usual there is some hardware that for some reason
or another exhibits odd behavior, like a particular SSD as used by
the Russian overclocker Xtreme Addict. For some reason Super Pi
would not run successfully on this drive which obviously ended his
day prematurely. This was the only hardware glitch that was
encountered outside of regular extreme overclocking challenges. The
involved vendors in the competition, provided not only solid
and
reliable hardware, but ensured that each entrant had two sets of
hardware, in case one component failed unexpectedly.
The hardware for the competition was none other than MSIs Z97
MPower motherboard, the Intel Core i7 4790K, Cooler Masters
brilliant V1200 platinum and JETFLO 120mm fans. The memory of
choice was G.Skills TRIEDNTX F3 CL10 2600. KINGSTONs HYPERX 3K
SSDs, VIEWSONICs VX2370SMH LED monitors along with keyboards and
mice by SteelSeries completed the hardware list. The graphics cards
of choice were the sublime MSI GTX 980 GAMING and the very rare,
GeForce GTX 780 Ti Lightning MOA edition. During the competition
only the 780Ti Lightning could be used for the 3D Benchmark, but
after the
-
12 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
On the weekend of October the 17th MSI held the annual MOA
(Master Overclocker Arena) competition. As in all the previous
competitions, MOA featured over a dozen overclockers from around
the world. These competitors had qualified over the course of
several months in their respective regions. Unlike in previous
competitions though, Instead of having a single class or
overclockers all using the same hardware, MSI broke it down to two
classes. Obviously entrants could only enter in a single class, but
it did allow for those with lesser hardware in class B for instance
to show their skill even with limited hardware. In this class there
were no regional restrictions and all entrants competed around the
world simultaneously leading up to the competition.
For the first time ever, MOA was streamed live on Twitch, hosted
by none other than OC-TV, which has always been the go to, live
overclocking broadcasting agency. As
expected, the rules were set by MSI and HWBOT to ensure
consistency with international overclocking standards. To that end,
HWBOTs resident celebrity (massman)was present, but not in the
capacity of a judge, instead as one of the commentators of the live
broadcast. The two judges were top overclockers Ian (8-pack) from
the U.K and Roman (der8auer) from Germany. Two faces and names all
competitors were very familiar with.
Last year MSI had decided to make this a closed event and this
year was the same with no spectators. Only the independent
journalists, partners, competitors and of course MSI and its hosts
were present at the venue. This obviously allows the overclockers
to focus exclusively on the task at hand. However, it is a pity
that it has made the event and exercise very niche. We do hope next
year, should MSI hosts the competition, that it will perhaps be at
a venue where gamers are present as well. After all, the
A LOOK BACK AT MSIS MASTER OVERCLOCKING
ARENA 2014
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 13
similarities between competitive gaming and overclocking are
more than skin deep and in structure these two activities are by
and large very similar.
Where hardware is concerned, MSI had a very strong showing this
year with not a single piece of hardware failing due to
overclocking. As usual there is some hardware that for some reason
or another exhibits odd behavior, like a particular SSD as used by
the Russian overclocker Xtreme Addict. For some reason Super Pi
would not run successfully on this drive which obviously ended his
day prematurely. This was the only hardware glitch that was
encountered outside of regular extreme overclocking challenges. The
involved vendors in the competition, provided not only solid
and
reliable hardware, but ensured that each entrant had two sets of
hardware, in case one component failed unexpectedly.
The hardware for the competition was none other than MSIs Z97
MPower motherboard, the Intel Core i7 4790K, Cooler Masters
brilliant V1200 platinum and JETFLO 120mm fans. The memory of
choice was G.Skills TRIEDNTX F3 CL10 2600. KINGSTONs HYPERX 3K
SSDs, VIEWSONICs VX2370SMH LED monitors along with keyboards and
mice by SteelSeries completed the hardware list. The graphics cards
of choice were the sublime MSI GTX 980 GAMING and the very rare,
GeForce GTX 780 Ti Lightning MOA edition. During the competition
only the 780Ti Lightning could be used for the 3D Benchmark, but
after the
-
14 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
competition ended and on the following day, the GTX 980 was
allowed as well. Throughout the weekend MSI managed to secure over
a dozen top score results with their hardware (previously known as
world records). Not surprising given that many of the worlds
prolific overclockers had made it out to the event.
With three categories and only two hours for each, the pressure
was on for every contestant. Given that many of the competitors had
never even used some of the hardware before prior to arriving at
the competition, it would be a test of who could best prepare
and
dial in the settings the quickest. Experience would play a major
role here and it is perhaps one of the reasons why Vivi ended up
taking first place. Familiarity with this kind of competition,
helped immensely as he knew that he did not have to win every
round, but do pretty well in all three. This was very evident
during the 3DMark FireStrike round as he posted one of the first
set of scores and with it coincidentally, he would go on to win the
competition. Obviously at the time, others were trying to beat this
score, but it would not happen and at the end of the grueling day
he stood triumphant. Oc_windforce, the
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 15
Korean overclocker, usually teamed up with little_boy at various
competitions had a fantastic start. He won the Super Pi 32M round.
From there his position in the top three was pretty much guaranteed
unless something went drastically wrong. Given his consistent
performance and perhaps even bias to graphics card benchmarks, he
was always going to do well. In Cinebench, dRWeEz managed to place
second, displacing Vivi from the number two spot, just below
Moose83 the German overclocker. However, due to the poor quality of
his first CPU sample during the Super Pi round, he had placed near
the bottom of the list. At 6.2GHz, not much was going to happen in
such a CPU dependent
benchmark. In the end it was Vivi who
walked off with $3,000 USD in cash and hardware to the value of
$2,000 (He would claim an additional $500 USD on the following day
in the No-Limits battle). A close second went to Tolsty MOA 2013
champion who received $2,000. Third place was oc_windforce from
Korea with $1,500 USD and fourth place went to Moose83 from Germany
earning himself $1,000 USD. Like Vivi, these individuals walked
away with over $2,000 USD worth of hardware in addition to their
prize money.
Since 2008, MSI has been hosting this competition and with each
successive event, the input from overclockers has been injected
into their retail products. Many of the wonderful
-
14 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
competition ended and on the following day, the GTX 980 was
allowed as well. Throughout the weekend MSI managed to secure over
a dozen top score results with their hardware (previously known as
world records). Not surprising given that many of the worlds
prolific overclockers had made it out to the event.
With three categories and only two hours for each, the pressure
was on for every contestant. Given that many of the competitors had
never even used some of the hardware before prior to arriving at
the competition, it would be a test of who could best prepare
and
dial in the settings the quickest. Experience would play a major
role here and it is perhaps one of the reasons why Vivi ended up
taking first place. Familiarity with this kind of competition,
helped immensely as he knew that he did not have to win every
round, but do pretty well in all three. This was very evident
during the 3DMark FireStrike round as he posted one of the first
set of scores and with it coincidentally, he would go on to win the
competition. Obviously at the time, others were trying to beat this
score, but it would not happen and at the end of the grueling day
he stood triumphant. Oc_windforce, the
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 15
Korean overclocker, usually teamed up with little_boy at various
competitions had a fantastic start. He won the Super Pi 32M round.
From there his position in the top three was pretty much guaranteed
unless something went drastically wrong. Given his consistent
performance and perhaps even bias to graphics card benchmarks, he
was always going to do well. In Cinebench, dRWeEz managed to place
second, displacing Vivi from the number two spot, just below
Moose83 the German overclocker. However, due to the poor quality of
his first CPU sample during the Super Pi round, he had placed near
the bottom of the list. At 6.2GHz, not much was going to happen in
such a CPU dependent
benchmark. In the end it was Vivi who
walked off with $3,000 USD in cash and hardware to the value of
$2,000 (He would claim an additional $500 USD on the following day
in the No-Limits battle). A close second went to Tolsty MOA 2013
champion who received $2,000. Third place was oc_windforce from
Korea with $1,500 USD and fourth place went to Moose83 from Germany
earning himself $1,000 USD. Like Vivi, these individuals walked
away with over $2,000 USD worth of hardware in addition to their
prize money.
Since 2008, MSI has been hosting this competition and with each
successive event, the input from overclockers has been injected
into their retail products. Many of the wonderful
-
16 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
hardware that MSI has been producing in the last two to three
years has been a direct result of this close collaboration between
the community, its own internal overclockers and the engineers
within the firm. As it is, the battle for component supremacy is no
longer a two horse race, but MSI is right in there, with a valid
claim to producing the most robust components and products in the
market.
Separate from the overclocking, MSI had displayed several other
motherboards from their gaming range including the previously
reviewed MSI GTX 980 GAMING. Word was that there wouldnt be a
lightning version of this card for overclockers specifically, but
given just how adept the GAMING GTX 980 is already at overclocking,
we can fully appreciate why such a product may not come to be.
Overall this was a successful competition, with the usual faces
and plenty of new faces coming to the show. Veterans and previous
winner of the MOA, Lucky_n00b form Indonesia for instance was
present, covering the event in the capacity of a journalist but
also giving some useful tips to his understudies
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 17
that had come to represent the Indonesian overclocking
community.
Every year, overclockers, amateurs and professionals alike have
come to anticipate MSIs MOA as the single largest overclocking
competition in the calendar year. This is viewed as not only an
opportunity for competitors to come together, but also a time where
new faces to the scene may be introduced. Once you win a live
overclocking competition, especially MOA, your status within the
community is immortalized. MSI has been doing a stellar job since
the beginning in not only promoting overclocking to every
enthusiast, but to gamers as well. With each successive generation
of gaming hardware, many of their overclocking features make their
way on to
their gaming boards. One could even argue that courtesy of these
components, getting into overclocking has never been easier. What
was previously a ridiculously small community and hobby has
transformed how products are designed and what end users can expect
from them. This was the first time we attended a live competition
where the hardware held up for as long as it did and was without
any failure as a result of the extreme conditions it was operated
at.
We would like to thank MSI for having given us this opportunity
to cover this event. We hope to return in 2015 again to see what
MSI has prepared. Whatever it may be, its guaranteed to be even
more exciting. This is MSIs MOA 2014 in pictures, please do
enjoy.
[ The Overclocker ]
-
16 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
hardware that MSI has been producing in the last two to three
years has been a direct result of this close collaboration between
the community, its own internal overclockers and the engineers
within the firm. As it is, the battle for component supremacy is no
longer a two horse race, but MSI is right in there, with a valid
claim to producing the most robust components and products in the
market.
Separate from the overclocking, MSI had displayed several other
motherboards from their gaming range including the previously
reviewed MSI GTX 980 GAMING. Word was that there wouldnt be a
lightning version of this card for overclockers specifically, but
given just how adept the GAMING GTX 980 is already at overclocking,
we can fully appreciate why such a product may not come to be.
Overall this was a successful competition, with the usual faces
and plenty of new faces coming to the show. Veterans and previous
winner of the MOA, Lucky_n00b form Indonesia for instance was
present, covering the event in the capacity of a journalist but
also giving some useful tips to his understudies
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 17
that had come to represent the Indonesian overclocking
community.
Every year, overclockers, amateurs and professionals alike have
come to anticipate MSIs MOA as the single largest overclocking
competition in the calendar year. This is viewed as not only an
opportunity for competitors to come together, but also a time where
new faces to the scene may be introduced. Once you win a live
overclocking competition, especially MOA, your status within the
community is immortalized. MSI has been doing a stellar job since
the beginning in not only promoting overclocking to every
enthusiast, but to gamers as well. With each successive generation
of gaming hardware, many of their overclocking features make their
way on to
their gaming boards. One could even argue that courtesy of these
components, getting into overclocking has never been easier. What
was previously a ridiculously small community and hobby has
transformed how products are designed and what end users can expect
from them. This was the first time we attended a live competition
where the hardware held up for as long as it did and was without
any failure as a result of the extreme conditions it was operated
at.
We would like to thank MSI for having given us this opportunity
to cover this event. We hope to return in 2015 again to see what
MSI has prepared. Whatever it may be, its guaranteed to be even
more exciting. This is MSIs MOA 2014 in pictures, please do
enjoy.
[ The Overclocker ]
-
18 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
After years of not being active, I had a brief stint at the
annual rAge 2014 Expo down in South Africa. As usual the point was
to expose the hobby of overclocking to the 30,000 and more people
that would filter
through the Coca-Cola Dome. As with all overclocking demos
theres a myriad of questions audiences will ask, they will go so
far as to suggest things you should be doing and express concerns
about it all.
As a person who has been within the overclocking ecosystem for a
decade, there are so many things that I take for granted.
Information that I would think or believe is so pervasive in the
general enthusiast community that some of these questions should
not ever come up. Obviously I was wrong and that is good and bad
for many reasons.
That which we call overclocking, is something that many of the
competitive overclockers and I included hold dear even when more
often than not we are jaded by it all. With every passing
generation and platform of hardware, we see ever increasing scores
or decreasing calculation times. Weve seen HWBOTs transformation
from a simple database of scores and a sanctioned score keeper, to
a whole organization that has taken it upon itself to mediate the
inner workings of this community with the wider enthusiast
community and vendors. Its a difficult task and one that is
monumental in its scope.
In an ideal world thered be tutorials on every motherboard
released or at the very least a family of motherboards that would
guide beginners, intermediate users and advanced users. Helping
them extract the best from their systems. All this would be found
on HWBOT or a parallel site, where
the guides are written by the most prolific overclockers of our
time. At the very least they would help formulate said guides which
would then be consumed by the all.
This isnt the reality we live in though and its becoming
increasingly more relevant for the entire community to not only act
as an ambassador for our past time but to actively engage others
outside of our immediate contemporaries. This is not a call to arms
or an attempt to rally the elite in some misguided quest to make
overclocking accessible to all. What it is; is that those that find
themselves putting on shows for curious observers should embrace
the opportunity a little more. Engage the annoying questions; do
not shy away from those that ask what difference does this all
make? Those of us that have been taking part in this for several
years are more often than not oblivious to just how new all this is
to the wider gaming and enthusiast community.
It doesnt help that unintentionally or otherwise, our said
vendors confuse the message. The search for ever increasing sales
figures is what business is about and any means will be employed to
see that happen. That means overclocking may be communicated in
perhaps a suboptimal way to those outside the community. If the
various press releases do not resonate with us within, then they
have no hope of impressing the ones out on the web. When it comes
down to buying decisions, theres an entire science behind why
people buy the products and components they do. If at the end of
2014, most people view overclocking as a risk to their hardware,
then something has not gone the way it should have.
We ourselves take for granted just how resilient the hardware we
use is, in comparison to what was available 10 years ago. Broken
pins on CPUs, high risk of condensation damage, and just basic
LET US OC IN PLACES FAR AND WIDE!
OVERCLOCKING ISOLATION
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 19
electrostatic damage. We were vulnerable to any one of these and
our hardware was always on the verge of imminent death. This is not
the case today where, we may perform hack jobs on sealing. However
we manage to get descent runs in and not destroy any hardware at
all. Its not uncommon that we partake in quick sub-zero
overclocking with absolutely no sealing at all.
The hardware we have lends itself to surprisingly fewer
modifications than before. Today you can easily buy a motherboard
that is ready for extreme and competitive overclocking out the box.
This was not the case years ago, yet the general message towards
buyers and others is that its extremely dangerous. Understand that
Im not advocating for disregard for the dangers that overclocking
may present to your hardware. What Im saying is that, the entire
industry and community has made some significant strides and thus
some of these concerns and misconceptions
shouldnt exist anymore, at least not within the
enthusiast/gaming community.
In light of this, I propose overclocking competitions where
there is no use of liquid nitrogen or even dry ice for that matter
if only to garner attention from a much wider audience. Mind you Im
a proponent and advocate for all things cooled with LN2, however
theres a need for various levels of engagement within overclocking.
The various leagues within HWBOT are a great start to this as they
do not force anyone in any way to partake in the rankings where
they would be out of their depth. This singular and structured
approach to overclocking engagement is a step in the right
direction. We, however as a community and perhaps even vendors need
to do more to make it all significantly more accessible.
The limitation isnt always a financial one, as limiting hardware
for instance in a competition to sub $100 graphics cards is good.
However, it takes one with significantly more resources to take
the
-
18 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
After years of not being active, I had a brief stint at the
annual rAge 2014 Expo down in South Africa. As usual the point was
to expose the hobby of overclocking to the 30,000 and more people
that would filter
through the Coca-Cola Dome. As with all overclocking demos
theres a myriad of questions audiences will ask, they will go so
far as to suggest things you should be doing and express concerns
about it all.
As a person who has been within the overclocking ecosystem for a
decade, there are so many things that I take for granted.
Information that I would think or believe is so pervasive in the
general enthusiast community that some of these questions should
not ever come up. Obviously I was wrong and that is good and bad
for many reasons.
That which we call overclocking, is something that many of the
competitive overclockers and I included hold dear even when more
often than not we are jaded by it all. With every passing
generation and platform of hardware, we see ever increasing scores
or decreasing calculation times. Weve seen HWBOTs transformation
from a simple database of scores and a sanctioned score keeper, to
a whole organization that has taken it upon itself to mediate the
inner workings of this community with the wider enthusiast
community and vendors. Its a difficult task and one that is
monumental in its scope.
In an ideal world thered be tutorials on every motherboard
released or at the very least a family of motherboards that would
guide beginners, intermediate users and advanced users. Helping
them extract the best from their systems. All this would be found
on HWBOT or a parallel site, where
the guides are written by the most prolific overclockers of our
time. At the very least they would help formulate said guides which
would then be consumed by the all.
This isnt the reality we live in though and its becoming
increasingly more relevant for the entire community to not only act
as an ambassador for our past time but to actively engage others
outside of our immediate contemporaries. This is not a call to arms
or an attempt to rally the elite in some misguided quest to make
overclocking accessible to all. What it is; is that those that find
themselves putting on shows for curious observers should embrace
the opportunity a little more. Engage the annoying questions; do
not shy away from those that ask what difference does this all
make? Those of us that have been taking part in this for several
years are more often than not oblivious to just how new all this is
to the wider gaming and enthusiast community.
It doesnt help that unintentionally or otherwise, our said
vendors confuse the message. The search for ever increasing sales
figures is what business is about and any means will be employed to
see that happen. That means overclocking may be communicated in
perhaps a suboptimal way to those outside the community. If the
various press releases do not resonate with us within, then they
have no hope of impressing the ones out on the web. When it comes
down to buying decisions, theres an entire science behind why
people buy the products and components they do. If at the end of
2014, most people view overclocking as a risk to their hardware,
then something has not gone the way it should have.
We ourselves take for granted just how resilient the hardware we
use is, in comparison to what was available 10 years ago. Broken
pins on CPUs, high risk of condensation damage, and just basic
LET US OC IN PLACES FAR AND WIDE!
OVERCLOCKING ISOLATION
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 19
electrostatic damage. We were vulnerable to any one of these and
our hardware was always on the verge of imminent death. This is not
the case today where, we may perform hack jobs on sealing. However
we manage to get descent runs in and not destroy any hardware at
all. Its not uncommon that we partake in quick sub-zero
overclocking with absolutely no sealing at all.
The hardware we have lends itself to surprisingly fewer
modifications than before. Today you can easily buy a motherboard
that is ready for extreme and competitive overclocking out the box.
This was not the case years ago, yet the general message towards
buyers and others is that its extremely dangerous. Understand that
Im not advocating for disregard for the dangers that overclocking
may present to your hardware. What Im saying is that, the entire
industry and community has made some significant strides and thus
some of these concerns and misconceptions
shouldnt exist anymore, at least not within the
enthusiast/gaming community.
In light of this, I propose overclocking competitions where
there is no use of liquid nitrogen or even dry ice for that matter
if only to garner attention from a much wider audience. Mind you Im
a proponent and advocate for all things cooled with LN2, however
theres a need for various levels of engagement within overclocking.
The various leagues within HWBOT are a great start to this as they
do not force anyone in any way to partake in the rankings where
they would be out of their depth. This singular and structured
approach to overclocking engagement is a step in the right
direction. We, however as a community and perhaps even vendors need
to do more to make it all significantly more accessible.
The limitation isnt always a financial one, as limiting hardware
for instance in a competition to sub $100 graphics cards is good.
However, it takes one with significantly more resources to take
the
-
20 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
very same graphics card, mount a cooling pot on it, make all
necessary modifications and then overclock it. That entire exercise
costs many times more than the retail price of the graphics card,
thus the endeavor is largely exclusionary. No, that isnt quite what
is needed.
As it is, the recent change in what qualifies as a world record
and what doesnt is a change that has been needed for years on end.
Itll take a while for world record to mean anything again. The term
at present is devoid of substance and if anything has negative
connotations. This isnt hard to pick up on as the various tech
sites that post these press releases attest to this very point. The
replies in those forums range from indifference to outright
disapproval. Yes, the tendency of forums or any medium of social
communication towards negativity is noted. However, there is little
to no pessimism when it comes to a regular press release or
announcement of a new motherboard or GPU. Yet a showing of what
said motherboard or GPU can achieve under the capable hands of
competitive overclockers, has anything but the desired effect on
potential buyers.
This is where I would propose many more competitions, which are
by structure, familiar to us but impose limits that are not
exclusionary of most people. As stated earlier, no LN2, no pots,
just regular, all in one units, and air coolers. No chilled water
or anything of the sort. Indeed, this would be very boring for
veteran overclockers, but the odds are. Those that do well there
are likely to move on to the more challenging competitions, where
the competitors are fewer as well as a result. We all appreciate a
graphics card that is ready out the box for Liquid Nitrogen, but
what does that mean exactly to the tens of thousands of people who
are potential buyers of said graphics card?
That its ready for the day they have gathered all required
knowledge and supplementary hardware is not meaningful at all. This
cant be a viable strategy as it gains the customer nothing at all.
However, can you imagine a situation where, by way of purchasing a
graphics card, you gain ticket entry to a competition using your
recent purchase? Since almost all competitions, require that you
use the specific vendors products anyway, why does that purchase
not grant you access to competition automatically?
The details of it could be written about at length, but it is
one of the many ways in which competitive overclocking can gain
popularity, new participants and directly help vendors reach sales
targets. This is access to that which was previously and is at
present an exclusive community and obscure hobby. Its simple
really, if I as Joe
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 21
soap buy a Radeon 7770 for example. This is all I can afford,
but if that purchase has gained me access to a competition where I
may win a Radeon 290. Chances are I would be more than willing to
participate in it, with just the system I have and the one I use to
play games. That is at home however, in terms of live competition
theres an even more organic way to engage people.
We should have, at this time, discarded our inherent reliance on
fixed synthetic benchmarks. This is not to undermine the often
impressive work that Futuremark and others have done. It is however
saying that, the tie in between the regular enthusiast and
competitive overclockers must be strengthened by way of more
relevant application benchmarks. Several games at present include
built in benchmarks, why not have those as the applications with
which performance is measured? At a live event, this is far more
engaging and even for spectators, they are more than likely to be
familiar with the performance of a game rather than 3DMark
FireStrike Ultra. How many of us know what a Radeon 280 scores in
that benchmark for example? I would wager that very few people do.
Even if we were to use such a benchmark, its staccato frame rate is
anything but impressive or appealing to anyone. It is not a great
showing for the hardware and perhaps even the benchmark itself.
Contrast that with the fly-through benchmark of Hitman:
Absolution, BioShock Infinite or any other triple A. Artistically
these are more appealing, likely to be familiar and they have a
direct relevance to what most people do who are at these
competitions as spectators. If to an audience member, they are able
to witness a particular game benchmark showing a frame rate of 46,
instead of what they experience at home at 32 with lower image
quality. It is direct way of incentivizing that individual to buy
that particular graphics card. We may and always do appreciate ever
increasing 3DMark scores, but theres hardly anyone who knows what a
good 3DMark score is for instance.
What does 3,000 points in 3DMark FireStrike mean? What games
does that play and at what quality? Its a number, but it is
meaningless in isolation. Yet a frame rate is something nearly
everybody can relate to. There are plenty of opportunities afforded
by a slight adjustment in how we as a community, vendors and all
involved presently in overclocking deal with the larger computing
space. To those within the industry we by and large understand why
overclocking at a competitive level matters. This is either as a
necessary undertaking for the purpose of selling components, or to
a lesser degree an opportunity to refine future components through
user feedback
-
20 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
very same graphics card, mount a cooling pot on it, make all
necessary modifications and then overclock it. That entire exercise
costs many times more than the retail price of the graphics card,
thus the endeavor is largely exclusionary. No, that isnt quite what
is needed.
As it is, the recent change in what qualifies as a world record
and what doesnt is a change that has been needed for years on end.
Itll take a while for world record to mean anything again. The term
at present is devoid of substance and if anything has negative
connotations. This isnt hard to pick up on as the various tech
sites that post these press releases attest to this very point. The
replies in those forums range from indifference to outright
disapproval. Yes, the tendency of forums or any medium of social
communication towards negativity is noted. However, there is little
to no pessimism when it comes to a regular press release or
announcement of a new motherboard or GPU. Yet a showing of what
said motherboard or GPU can achieve under the capable hands of
competitive overclockers, has anything but the desired effect on
potential buyers.
This is where I would propose many more competitions, which are
by structure, familiar to us but impose limits that are not
exclusionary of most people. As stated earlier, no LN2, no pots,
just regular, all in one units, and air coolers. No chilled water
or anything of the sort. Indeed, this would be very boring for
veteran overclockers, but the odds are. Those that do well there
are likely to move on to the more challenging competitions, where
the competitors are fewer as well as a result. We all appreciate a
graphics card that is ready out the box for Liquid Nitrogen, but
what does that mean exactly to the tens of thousands of people who
are potential buyers of said graphics card?
That its ready for the day they have gathered all required
knowledge and supplementary hardware is not meaningful at all. This
cant be a viable strategy as it gains the customer nothing at all.
However, can you imagine a situation where, by way of purchasing a
graphics card, you gain ticket entry to a competition using your
recent purchase? Since almost all competitions, require that you
use the specific vendors products anyway, why does that purchase
not grant you access to competition automatically?
The details of it could be written about at length, but it is
one of the many ways in which competitive overclocking can gain
popularity, new participants and directly help vendors reach sales
targets. This is access to that which was previously and is at
present an exclusive community and obscure hobby. Its simple
really, if I as Joe
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 21
soap buy a Radeon 7770 for example. This is all I can afford,
but if that purchase has gained me access to a competition where I
may win a Radeon 290. Chances are I would be more than willing to
participate in it, with just the system I have and the one I use to
play games. That is at home however, in terms of live competition
theres an even more organic way to engage people.
We should have, at this time, discarded our inherent reliance on
fixed synthetic benchmarks. This is not to undermine the often
impressive work that Futuremark and others have done. It is however
saying that, the tie in between the regular enthusiast and
competitive overclockers must be strengthened by way of more
relevant application benchmarks. Several games at present include
built in benchmarks, why not have those as the applications with
which performance is measured? At a live event, this is far more
engaging and even for spectators, they are more than likely to be
familiar with the performance of a game rather than 3DMark
FireStrike Ultra. How many of us know what a Radeon 280 scores in
that benchmark for example? I would wager that very few people do.
Even if we were to use such a benchmark, its staccato frame rate is
anything but impressive or appealing to anyone. It is not a great
showing for the hardware and perhaps even the benchmark itself.
Contrast that with the fly-through benchmark of Hitman:
Absolution, BioShock Infinite or any other triple A. Artistically
these are more appealing, likely to be familiar and they have a
direct relevance to what most people do who are at these
competitions as spectators. If to an audience member, they are able
to witness a particular game benchmark showing a frame rate of 46,
instead of what they experience at home at 32 with lower image
quality. It is direct way of incentivizing that individual to buy
that particular graphics card. We may and always do appreciate ever
increasing 3DMark scores, but theres hardly anyone who knows what a
good 3DMark score is for instance.
What does 3,000 points in 3DMark FireStrike mean? What games
does that play and at what quality? Its a number, but it is
meaningless in isolation. Yet a frame rate is something nearly
everybody can relate to. There are plenty of opportunities afforded
by a slight adjustment in how we as a community, vendors and all
involved presently in overclocking deal with the larger computing
space. To those within the industry we by and large understand why
overclocking at a competitive level matters. This is either as a
necessary undertaking for the purpose of selling components, or to
a lesser degree an opportunity to refine future components through
user feedback
-
22 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
(a least thats what I would like to think). Theres the issue of
relevance though where for the sole purpose of reaching an even
higher synthetic score, we turn to GPU setups that cost several
thousands of dollars. In the same way that we appreciate quarter
mile runs with highly tuned cars, it is not of mass market interest
and theres no real way to make it so. The volumes of people who can
appreciate that exercise, but are capable of partaking in it are
almost not worth counting. That doesnt mean its not something we
shouldnt have. Consider however that a quarter mile drag
competition with regular street legal cars is a lot more
accessible. That very same car will go on a shopping run after the
sprint.
This is exactly how a competition with unmodified hardware or
mass hardware can be significantly more attractive. That very same
computer that was taking part in the competition for the highest
Hitman frame rate is well and truly capable of actually running
that game.
That is to me probably the most direct way to engage everyone in
this common interest and passion for hardware. How long it took for
us to get a UHD/4K benchmark is indicative of this disparity
between the competitive overclocking scene and the general
enthusiast and/or gamer. There should not be a situation where you
can get more information about game or system performance using a
singular title, than you can with a benchmark which only serves the
purpose of gauging system performance.
I must add that it need not be a coordinated effort by all
involved to do this and perhaps it falls to the vendors more than
anyone else to make these changes. After all, they are the entities
that stand
to gain the most from this. With all the above said, Im well
aware that within the hardware industry, creativity is a distant
second to mimicry and maintenance of the status quo. It is always
perplexing to come across so many within the various companies that
are not in tune with their customers. This is overclockers and
gamers alike. It is possibly the only industry where every product
or component goes from engineering to retail, with every step
between only serving to facilitate that. As such, all the above is
probably esoteric at best to those which can affect this change.
Vendors make this hardware for gamers and market them by way of
overclockers and competitive overclockers. Yet, neither of these
two demographics is understood in any capacity that resembles
adequate. Alas, that is a topic for another editorial piece.
For now, this was a brief and perhaps superficial look at how we
can all move to a more inviting, encouraging and diverse
overclocking landscape. I still believe that weve so much
potential, that weve not begun to tap into it, despite how far weve
come. Theres no question that overclocking will continue to grow
organically and may even be at an accelerated rate in the near
future. Whatever the future may have for us, it necessitates that
we constantly re-evaluate our ecosystem and make improvements where
we can. For now though, its great to see an increase in the
visibility of overclocking competitions and gatherings the world
over. Personally I cant wait to see even more of these, from 2015
going forward hopefully with some of the suggestions herein.
[ TheOverclocker ]
-
22 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
(a least thats what I would like to think). Theres the issue of
relevance though where for the sole purpose of reaching an even
higher synthetic score, we turn to GPU setups that cost several
thousands of dollars. In the same way that we appreciate quarter
mile runs with highly tuned cars, it is not of mass market interest
and theres no real way to make it so. The volumes of people who can
appreciate that exercise, but are capable of partaking in it are
almost not worth counting. That doesnt mean its not something we
shouldnt have. Consider however that a quarter mile drag
competition with regular street legal cars is a lot more
accessible. That very same car will go on a shopping run after the
sprint.
This is exactly how a competition with unmodified hardware or
mass hardware can be significantly more attractive. That very same
computer that was taking part in the competition for the highest
Hitman frame rate is well and truly capable of actually running
that game.
That is to me probably the most direct way to engage everyone in
this common interest and passion for hardware. How long it took for
us to get a UHD/4K benchmark is indicative of this disparity
between the competitive overclocking scene and the general
enthusiast and/or gamer. There should not be a situation where you
can get more information about game or system performance using a
singular title, than you can with a benchmark which only serves the
purpose of gauging system performance.
I must add that it need not be a coordinated effort by all
involved to do this and perhaps it falls to the vendors more than
anyone else to make these changes. After all, they are the entities
that stand
to gain the most from this. With all the above said, Im well
aware that within the hardware industry, creativity is a distant
second to mimicry and maintenance of the status quo. It is always
perplexing to come across so many within the various companies that
are not in tune with their customers. This is overclockers and
gamers alike. It is possibly the only industry where every product
or component goes from engineering to retail, with every step
between only serving to facilitate that. As such, all the above is
probably esoteric at best to those which can affect this change.
Vendors make this hardware for gamers and market them by way of
overclockers and competitive overclockers. Yet, neither of these
two demographics is understood in any capacity that resembles
adequate. Alas, that is a topic for another editorial piece.
For now, this was a brief and perhaps superficial look at how we
can all move to a more inviting, encouraging and diverse
overclocking landscape. I still believe that weve so much
potential, that weve not begun to tap into it, despite how far weve
come. Theres no question that overclocking will continue to grow
organically and may even be at an accelerated rate in the near
future. Whatever the future may have for us, it necessitates that
we constantly re-evaluate our ecosystem and make improvements where
we can. For now though, its great to see an increase in the
visibility of overclocking competitions and gatherings the world
over. Personally I cant wait to see even more of these, from 2015
going forward hopefully with some of the suggestions herein.
[ TheOverclocker ]
-
24 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
Here with us this issue is another MSI overclocking motherboard.
With each generation we see subtle changes to the physical layout
of the MSI motherboards, but that isnt a bad thing. They are in
general well designed and for the purposes of competitive
overclocking offer all the bells and whistles to attack the
competitive rankings. In a word, MSI has hit their stride and this
will only continue with future motherboards and certainly
MSI X99S X-POWER ACRRP: $384.99 | Website: www.msi.com
Test Machine
INTEL Core i7 5960X CORSAIR Dominator
Platinum DDR4 3200 C16 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SAMSUNG PX941
512GB CORSAIR AX1500i Windows 8.1
with graphics cards. With the X99S-XPOWER
MSI has brought back several features which we are highly
appreciative off. In fact we wish that more vendors would take
these ideas into consideration and implement them on their
motherboards. Many of these conveniences are not talked about
enough in editorial and we are guilty of that as well here at
TheOverclocker.
For instance, MSI has included with this motherboard an OC
BACKPLATE. Simply put this is a back plate that does not have the
grooved screw holes. These are obviously necessary for regular
coolers, but for extreme overclocking, the normal back plate is
troublesome. Since most bars as used on LN2 pots are grooved as
well and of the same diameter they can be used with a regular
plate, provided you dont mind making holes in the
plastic film thats on the board by default. This film prevents
regular screws as used on normal coolers from going through the
back, the very thing you want for mounting your pot. Thus the OC
BACKPLATE is without any threading so your barbs go right through
and are easily secured on the underside of the motherboard. Theres
no turning of the barbs individually, hundreds of times trying to
get them all through the board and potentially causing an uneven
mount on the CPU. The OC BACKPLATE is not only appreciated but we
would say is a necessary addition to any and all overclocking
motherboards. Together with Delid Die Guard as seen on the Z97
equivalent of this board provide some very useful overclocking
components. (Diminished application for the guard however as theres
no need
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 25
for that with Haswell-E CPUs). Adding to the above is the OC Fan
stand, the fan isnt included, but you can get a matching yellow
accented fan from Shark.
Board layout is the typical affair but we do have the added
benefit of DIRECT USB which is just a USB port on the motherboard
where you can attach any USB device. Its useful for USB keys that
have a BIOS update, utilities, drivers or anything like that. You
need not reach for the back of the motherboard which can be a chore
or some sorts. This is added convenience that we wish once again
was present on other competing boards as well. The oddity here is
that MSI clearly acknowledges the benefit of not having to reach
for the back of the motherboard, yet the Clear CMOS button, which
will come into use plenty of times during overclocking, is
located
at the rear of the motherboard. Where youd expect a clear CMOS
button you find instead a Complete Discharge button which only
differs from a normal clear CMOS button in that it apparently
clears data stored in the PCH as well. This is certainly a
convenient feature to have but rarely if ever has it ever proven to
be more useful than a regular CMOS reset button.
The rest you should be well and truly familiar with by now, as
MSI has kept largely the same design ethos as with their more
recent offerings. The BIOS is still butter smooth and it is an
absolute pleasure to navigate. Its detailed but not difficult at
all to use with a mouse or keyboard. We can never sing its praises
enough and on this motherboard its very much welcome.
So this should be the ultimate X99 motherboard,
at least under $400. MSIs crowning achievement for the current
crop of overclocking motherboards. This would be the case save for
two issues it suffers from. The first is that this board is not
capable of the high UNCORE frequencies (around 3.5GHz for our
particular CPU which has seen upwards of 4.5GHz on another
motherboard) but secondly and perhaps isolated to this motherboard
is that there are issues with memory overclocking.
Currently on the site it stipulates that this motherboard is
capable of DRAM speeds in excess of 3333MHz. Throughout the entire
testing duration of this motherboard, we were never able to get
3,000MHz to work let alone 3,200MHz, the native frequency of our
testing kit. We have to wonder how this 3,333MHz was achieved and
with
-
24 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
Here with us this issue is another MSI overclocking motherboard.
With each generation we see subtle changes to the physical layout
of the MSI motherboards, but that isnt a bad thing. They are in
general well designed and for the purposes of competitive
overclocking offer all the bells and whistles to attack the
competitive rankings. In a word, MSI has hit their stride and this
will only continue with future motherboards and certainly
MSI X99S X-POWER ACRRP: $384.99 | Website: www.msi.com
Test Machine
INTEL Core i7 5960X CORSAIR Dominator
Platinum DDR4 3200 C16 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SAMSUNG PX941
512GB CORSAIR AX1500i Windows 8.1
with graphics cards. With the X99S-XPOWER
MSI has brought back several features which we are highly
appreciative off. In fact we wish that more vendors would take
these ideas into consideration and implement them on their
motherboards. Many of these conveniences are not talked about
enough in editorial and we are guilty of that as well here at
TheOverclocker.
For instance, MSI has included with this motherboard an OC
BACKPLATE. Simply put this is a back plate that does not have the
grooved screw holes. These are obviously necessary for regular
coolers, but for extreme overclocking, the normal back plate is
troublesome. Since most bars as used on LN2 pots are grooved as
well and of the same diameter they can be used with a regular
plate, provided you dont mind making holes in the
plastic film thats on the board by default. This film prevents
regular screws as used on normal coolers from going through the
back, the very thing you want for mounting your pot. Thus the OC
BACKPLATE is without any threading so your barbs go right through
and are easily secured on the underside of the motherboard. Theres
no turning of the barbs individually, hundreds of times trying to
get them all through the board and potentially causing an uneven
mount on the CPU. The OC BACKPLATE is not only appreciated but we
would say is a necessary addition to any and all overclocking
motherboards. Together with Delid Die Guard as seen on the Z97
equivalent of this board provide some very useful overclocking
components. (Diminished application for the guard however as theres
no need
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 25
for that with Haswell-E CPUs). Adding to the above is the OC Fan
stand, the fan isnt included, but you can get a matching yellow
accented fan from Shark.
Board layout is the typical affair but we do have the added
benefit of DIRECT USB which is just a USB port on the motherboard
where you can attach any USB device. Its useful for USB keys that
have a BIOS update, utilities, drivers or anything like that. You
need not reach for the back of the motherboard which can be a chore
or some sorts. This is added convenience that we wish once again
was present on other competing boards as well. The oddity here is
that MSI clearly acknowledges the benefit of not having to reach
for the back of the motherboard, yet the Clear CMOS button, which
will come into use plenty of times during overclocking, is
located
at the rear of the motherboard. Where youd expect a clear CMOS
button you find instead a Complete Discharge button which only
differs from a normal clear CMOS button in that it apparently
clears data stored in the PCH as well. This is certainly a
convenient feature to have but rarely if ever has it ever proven to
be more useful than a regular CMOS reset button.
The rest you should be well and truly familiar with by now, as
MSI has kept largely the same design ethos as with their more
recent offerings. The BIOS is still butter smooth and it is an
absolute pleasure to navigate. Its detailed but not difficult at
all to use with a mouse or keyboard. We can never sing its praises
enough and on this motherboard its very much welcome.
So this should be the ultimate X99 motherboard,
at least under $400. MSIs crowning achievement for the current
crop of overclocking motherboards. This would be the case save for
two issues it suffers from. The first is that this board is not
capable of the high UNCORE frequencies (around 3.5GHz for our
particular CPU which has seen upwards of 4.5GHz on another
motherboard) but secondly and perhaps isolated to this motherboard
is that there are issues with memory overclocking.
Currently on the site it stipulates that this motherboard is
capable of DRAM speeds in excess of 3333MHz. Throughout the entire
testing duration of this motherboard, we were never able to get
3,000MHz to work let alone 3,200MHz, the native frequency of our
testing kit. We have to wonder how this 3,333MHz was achieved and
with
-
26 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
which BIOS and set of memory this was done.
Ultimately this is probably the largest problem we have with
this motherboard. MSI by its very nature and certainly in its MOA
competitions sells many of their motherboards as overclocking
boards. When confronted with an issue like this, it is only fair to
try other combinations of hardware; however that goes against the
fundamentals of a controlled test environment. If the behaviour of
the hardware is consistent with other motherboards and this
particular board exhibits odd behaviour. We must investigate the
incompatibility and make the initial assumption that it is very
motherboard specific. What we found is that, this inability to load
an X.M.P profile successfully indeed spoke
more of the BIOS issues than our testing hardware. Using the
latest public BIOS available at the time of writing (1.4B) upon
loading the X.M.P profile, the Bclk would automatically increase to
120MHz. Obviously theres not a single CPU we are aware of that can
use this base clock while keeping the 1X base clock multiplier.
Using 1.25X is possible however that would mean under clocking from
the reference 125MHz to 120MHz and thus pulling down all related
clock frequencies in the system as well (PCI-E clock for
example).
To give you some context or back story to this. If this was an
issue prevalent in all X99 motherboards then we would be more than
forgiving of this simple yet greatly disappointing incompatibility.
If this issue, much like the UNCORE situation,
was a symptom of once again the inability to make the most out
of a platforms potential performance we would understand. However
this is something else, because we have motherboards from other
vendors where the very same memory and the very same CPU have no
problem reaching these memory frequencies (As per standard testing
procedure and philosophy of only using reporting repeatable
results). Far more concerning is that even the cheapest X99
motherboard we have at our disposal is capable of this. The entire
point of X.M.P is that you load the profile and the system sets
itself accordingly. It is at the very least a simple way for
everyone to extract the most from their systems, regardless of
their proficiency or skill level. Thus, when a motherboard such as
this, geared towards
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 27
Summary
Would you buy it?
MSI has once again manufactured a respectable high end
motherboard. It has all the bells and whistles weve come to expect
from their overclocking line of products and perhaps a few more
features. Its unfortunate that theres a memory clock issue that
persists even months after it was released, preventing it from
being a board we would recommend immediately. There is hope however
that it will get rectified and chances are by the time you read
this, it will be fixed.
Not at present but perhaps in future.
overclocking and performance by its very design is not capable
of such, we are at the very least disappointed.
That aside, this is overall a solid motherboard provided you
keep your memory speeds below or at the 2,666MHz mark (Remember the
1.4B BIOS doesnt even have multipliers above 2,6666MHz). Its more
of what weve seen before from previous MSI offerings on the Z97
platform. Those particular motherboards are sublime and the
X99S-XPower AC follows them closely within the BIOS, board layout
and in just about every value add feature. Theres very little to
complain about here short of the memory issue, but it turns out
that, this singular issue is enough to undermine our perception of
this motherboard. Weve no question that this will be resolved with
future BIOS updates and in fact we had throughout the last part of
our editorial process, received a 1.51 beta BIOS. It at the very
least allowed the
system to POST with the X.M.P loaded but sadly we could not get
into windows at all. It is however a step in the right
direction.
Depending on when you plan on making your purchase, this could
just be the motherboard to get for all your overclocking
undertakings on the X99 platform. At present consider waiting a
while before purchase and look to see how the situation with the
memory pans out. That is only if you care about such things though.
If not, and youre only ever planning on the lower frequency memory,
theres really no reason why you should not be looking to buy the
X-POWER. As stated earlier, it does have some neat features and at
the very least is a great looking board if aesthetics matter to
you. The X-POWER then in closingis a competent board that with one
or two BIOS updates could just be what was promised and the
motherboard you want.
[ TheOverclocker ]
-
26 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
which BIOS and set of memory this was done.
Ultimately this is probably the largest problem we have with
this motherboard. MSI by its very nature and certainly in its MOA
competitions sells many of their motherboards as overclocking
boards. When confronted with an issue like this, it is only fair to
try other combinations of hardware; however that goes against the
fundamentals of a controlled test environment. If the behaviour of
the hardware is consistent with other motherboards and this
particular board exhibits odd behaviour. We must investigate the
incompatibility and make the initial assumption that it is very
motherboard specific. What we found is that, this inability to load
an X.M.P profile successfully indeed spoke
more of the BIOS issues than our testing hardware. Using the
latest public BIOS available at the time of writing (1.4B) upon
loading the X.M.P profile, the Bclk would automatically increase to
120MHz. Obviously theres not a single CPU we are aware of that can
use this base clock while keeping the 1X base clock multiplier.
Using 1.25X is possible however that would mean under clocking from
the reference 125MHz to 120MHz and thus pulling down all related
clock frequencies in the system as well (PCI-E clock for
example).
To give you some context or back story to this. If this was an
issue prevalent in all X99 motherboards then we would be more than
forgiving of this simple yet greatly disappointing incompatibility.
If this issue, much like the UNCORE situation,
was a symptom of once again the inability to make the most out
of a platforms potential performance we would understand. However
this is something else, because we have motherboards from other
vendors where the very same memory and the very same CPU have no
problem reaching these memory frequencies (As per standard testing
procedure and philosophy of only using reporting repeatable
results). Far more concerning is that even the cheapest X99
motherboard we have at our disposal is capable of this. The entire
point of X.M.P is that you load the profile and the system sets
itself accordingly. It is at the very least a simple way for
everyone to extract the most from their systems, regardless of
their proficiency or skill level. Thus, when a motherboard such as
this, geared towards
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 27
Summary
Would you buy it?
MSI has once again manufactured a respectable high end
motherboard. It has all the bells and whistles weve come to expect
from their overclocking line of products and perhaps a few more
features. Its unfortunate that theres a memory clock issue that
persists even months after it was released, preventing it from
being a board we would recommend immediately. There is hope however
that it will get rectified and chances are by the time you read
this, it will be fixed.
Not at present but perhaps in future.
overclocking and performance by its very design is not capable
of such, we are at the very least disappointed.
That aside, this is overall a solid motherboard provided you
keep your memory speeds below or at the 2,666MHz mark (Remember the
1.4B BIOS doesnt even have multipliers above 2,6666MHz). Its more
of what weve seen before from previous MSI offerings on the Z97
platform. Those particular motherboards are sublime and the
X99S-XPower AC follows them closely within the BIOS, board layout
and in just about every value add feature. Theres very little to
complain about here short of the memory issue, but it turns out
that, this singular issue is enough to undermine our perception of
this motherboard. Weve no question that this will be resolved with
future BIOS updates and in fact we had throughout the last part of
our editorial process, received a 1.51 beta BIOS. It at the very
least allowed the
system to POST with the X.M.P loaded but sadly we could not get
into windows at all. It is however a step in the right
direction.
Depending on when you plan on making your purchase, this could
just be the motherboard to get for all your overclocking
undertakings on the X99 platform. At present consider waiting a
while before purchase and look to see how the situation with the
memory pans out. That is only if you care about such things though.
If not, and youre only ever planning on the lower frequency memory,
theres really no reason why you should not be looking to buy the
X-POWER. As stated earlier, it does have some neat features and at
the very least is a great looking board if aesthetics matter to
you. The X-POWER then in closingis a competent board that with one
or two BIOS updates could just be what was promised and the
motherboard you want.
[ TheOverclocker ]
-
28 The OverClocker Issue 32 | 2014
If youre confused as to why we are looking at GIGABYTEs
mainstream motherboard line (Ultra-Durable) instead of the SOC
FORCE or the Gaming range weve grown very fond of here. Well, well
not beat about it, but let it be known that the UD7 is better.
Thats not a typo or a facetious attempt at what would otherwise be
a dull intro.
GIGABYTE X99 UD7 WIFIRRP: $384.99 | Website:
www.gigabyte.com
Test Machine
INTEL Core i7 5960X CORSAIR Dominator
Platinum DDR4 3200 C16 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SAMSUNG PX941
512GB CORSAIR AX1500i Windows 8.1
This is actually true for many reasons. Perhaps and most
relevant is that in the DIY hardware industry of today. Especially
for competitive overclockers and power users, we rely on software.
More specifically we rely on the firmware of the various components
we buy. This applies to motherboards more than it does anything
else really, because outside of the LN2 BIOS for our graphics cards
and other voltage tuning software, theres nothing else thats
needed.
For motherboards, we need the brilliance right here; we need it
to work better with each update. We need a firmware that, with
successive iterations, adds features, increases compatibility and
for the most part makes a
good product even better. This is ideally what we would like to
see, this is especially for overclocking motherboards if not
exclusively. In the context of the UD7, this motherboard is a
sleeper hit with us because it has an identical BIOS to the
SOC-FORCE and the G1 GAMING. By identical we really do mean,
identical in layout, options and everything, save for the colour
scheme in HD mode on the GAMING motherboard. Every